Girl Scouts of the USA announces official start to cookie season. Visit girlscoutcookies.org to find cookies in your area.

NEW YORK, Jan. 25, 2016 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Today, Girl Scouts of the USA (GSUSA) announced gluten-free Girl Scout Cookies are returning for the 2016 cookie season. Back by popular demand, Toffee-tastic (buttery cookies with toffee bits) and Trios (made with real peanut butter, chocolate chips, and whole grain oats) will be available nationwide from most Girl Scout councils. These tasty treats made history in 2015 as the organization's first-ever nationwide offering of gluten-free options, joining classics like Thin Mints and Samoas/Caramel deLites. Not all varieties are available in every market, so contact your local council to inquire about the cookies they're offering this season.

National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend, which has become a national holiday for Girl Scout Cookie fans, will take place February 26–28, giving everyone a chance to celebrate the fun and excitement Girl Scouts have had selling cookies for nearly a century. Girls across the country will sell cookies at booths, door to door, and via Digital Cookie 2.0. This year's National Girl Scout Cookie Weekend will honor girls nationwide who use their cookie revenue to fund projects that benefit their communities in amazing ways—from buying a bulletproof vest for a female police officer to creating care packages for patients at a local children's cancer center. It will also celebrate the essential "5 Skills" each #cookieboss learns through the Girl Scout Cookie Program: goal setting, decision making, money management, people skills, and business ethics.

Marking the 99th year of the first known sale of cookies by Girl Scouts, the 2016 season will find more girls learning the basic skills and acumen they need to be leaders in business and sales, manage their finances, and gain confidence and self-sufficiency in handling money. One hundred percent of the net revenue from Girl Scout Cookie sales stays with the originating council, and girls decide how their troop cookie money is spent.

"This cookie season is a landmark one for our iconic Girl Scout Cookie Program," said Anna Maria Chávez, CEO of Girl Scouts of the USA. "In responding to an important consumer trend, we've brought back our delicious gluten-free cookie varieties, allowing even more cookie customers to indulge while supporting girls and their communities. And with Digital Cookie 2.0, Girl Scouts are able to further explore STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math), while still engaging in more traditional, including door-to-door, sales and giving back to their communities."

Last year, with the introduction of Girl Scouts' Digital Cookie platform, nearly 160,000 Girl Scouts experienced a revolutionary update to the iconic Girl Scout Cookie Program. The leading multichannel entrepreneurial program for girls in grades K–12, the Digital Cookie platform enables girls in select councils to sell cookies through their own personalized cookie websites and/or face-to-face using a mobile transaction app, depending on their region. With this year's upgrade to Digital Cookie 2.0, which includes interactive tools and age-appropriate website enhancements such as the "Cookie Booth Bounce" arcade game, a goal-setting calculator, a "Learning to Run a Business" section, and other fun and educational features, girls will explore ways to help others by investing their earnings back into their communities, as well as practice Internet safety. And with close to 90 percent of councils participating this cookie season, Digital Cookie 2.0 represents a continuing evolution toward one seamless platform and experience for all councils. Digital Cookie 2.0 was made possible with support from Dell and Visa. For more information, visit girlscouts.org/digitalcookie.

To learn more about the gluten-free cookie varieties and find Girl Scouts selling cookies near you, visit www.girlscoutcookies.org, or use the official Girl Scout Cookie Finder app, free for your iOS or Android phone or mobile device. In addition to the availability of new tablet versions, the app's latest features include the ability to search cookie sales using selectable start dates, obtain driving directions to cookie booths, share photos on Instagram, find links to Girl Scout Cookie recipes, and vote for your favorite Girl Scout Cookies.

We're Girl Scouts of the USA

We're 2.7 million strong—1.9 million girls and 800,000 adults who believe girls can change the world. It began over 100 years ago with one woman, Girl Scouts' founder Juliette Gordon "Daisy" Low, who believed in the power of every girl. She organized the first Girl Scout troop on March 12, 1912, in Savannah, Georgia, and every year since, we've made her vision a reality, helping girls discover their strengths, passions, and talents. Today we continue the Girl Scout mission of building girls of courage, confidence, and character, who make the world a better place. We're the preeminent leadership development organization for girls. And with programs for girls from coast to coast and across the globe, Girl Scouts offers every girl a chance to do something amazing. To volunteer, reconnect, donate, or join, visit www.girlscouts.org.